God Always Knows How to Humble Us - This past September, after a month of maximizing my multiple ministries (isn’t alliteration wonderful?), I came to the end of the month of having burned that candle at both ends. I was furiously writing a court brief to counter a state’s Attorney General’s brief. I had four days to research, write, and get it to the court before a hearing was due. Of course, the Attorney General’s underlings filed their brief in such a timely fashion that they knew we only had a short amount of time to answer theirs. It is a tactical ploy. That four days was over a weekend also as the Brief had to be filed by Tuesday, with the hearing on Wednesday. That meant I still had to prepare and preach three sermons for the church I pastor also. All my time, day and night was spent researching our arguments on Lexis. I really do not remember sleeping much at all. After gathering all the research, I started writing the brief. The arguments seemed to flow together well, and that was not a problem at all. I was to even drive to the hearing on that Wednesday so I could be present in court. Tuesday morning, after getting the brief done sometime during the night Monday night, I got up and started stumbling around the bed. My wife noticed and asked if I was alright. I mumbled something incoherent in her direction. I could not think what I was to wear that day and picked out something that was really tacky which would make our wives want to stick a “STUPID” sign on our chest to warn everyone we were coming. My daughters found out what was going on with me and convinced me to see a doctor about my condition. I did, and the doctor ordered a CT-Scan of my head, thinking I may have had a stroke. I went to the hospital, had the scan, and waited for the doctor’s call. When I answered the call at the hospital radiology department, the doctor said, “We couldn’t find anything.” I responded with, “No brain, huh?” The doctor concluded that I had a case of “Exhaustion, which mimicked the symptoms of a stroke.” Doctor said, “Get some rest.” One of my favorite jokes is, “Last night I dreamed I was a muffler, and woke up this morning exhausted.” That literally happened to me (not the muffler dream part). I had to apologize for not being able to go to the Hearing. The pastor understood, and did a great job without me being there. Sometimes You Wonder What Plan God Has for You - Going through Chemotherapy in January of 2012 (it started September of 2011), and knowing it would be still going through June, I made a conscience effort to let everyone know on my other blog that I would not be traveling and speaking anymore. There were two younger men who the Lord led to be the future of the Law Center. I was content to teach them and let them handle everything Law Center related. I would exist as an Advisor/Mentor/Emeritus/Idiot-Behind-the-Scenes. Each year since then I would seek the Lord to see when the last phase of my ELC ministry would begin. Several times I had my “speech” written out to give at the ELC Conference in June about passing the baton, and riding into the sunset. For some reason or another, the Lord never gave me peace to do so. I have seriously tried to slow down. In the past I have usually had to have a Semi hit me head-on to slow me down (once even literally). “Something” Has Energized Me - This past month I have had some unkind things said about the ELC and me personally. If I were to have done this to the “ones” doing this to me, they would have called it an “ATTACK.” They called our Chapter 18 in our book, “Approved by Man” (lovingly renamed “Betrayed by Man” by the gentleman writing against us) an “ATTACK” on the Ordinary Trust and the Biblical Law Center. (Sorry, I’m still chuckling about his renaming our book; I’ll be done in a minute and get back to writing this. He’s just so dramatic.) I have been wondering in my heart why this person wrote these things now. We always tend to place motives on why things are done in a certain way at a certain time. I view this as a blessing of God. My God has reenergized me to write and study even more about Trust Law. Of course, I will not be as smart as the other guy in reading law books because I am not an attorney with his vast attorney training and incomparable attorney knowledge from one of those “attorney schools” (“Duh, I forget what they are called.”). I repeat, I am not an attorney (PRAISE GOD!). (Once some pastor called me a “lawyer” at one of our ELC briefings, and I said, “Did you call me a LIAR,” and he said, “No. Lawww-yer.” I said, “I thought they were the same thing.” He laughed, I laughed, all the pastors laughed. Wish you could have been there. “Why did it take them SIX YEARS?” -Ben Townsend Our last ELC book was written in December of 2008 (Printed January 11, 2009). It is now December of 2014. So, why is this person NOW writing in answer to Chapter 18 in our six-year-old book? Why did he not do it back in 2009? Had he written against it in 2009, OUR Trust Expert would have been more than willing to have a dialog with him. They actually KNEW and RESPECTED each other. Why wait until our guy is DEAD, and then challenge our writing? That seems a little suspect to me. And a couple of years after the ELC “reached out” to this guy to attempt to get together and discuss our similarities and differences. Recap: “Six years late, Dr. Wright dead five years ago, reached out to this fellow two years ago.” Would any sensible pastor consider me a “Dirtbag” for calling this guy’s motives suspicious? Or am I the only one who sees holes in his timing (or lack thereof)? He stated it was because of dumb “ELC men questioning him,” which we proved were not ELC men, and “ELC Spies,” which we disproved having, an “attack by an ELC man against the BLC head,” which we proved was not done by an anyone even associated with the ELC. My question is, “Did these excuses hide his real reason?” “I miss Dr. Wright.” -Ben Townsend I have stated that Dr. Wright, in the 10 years he was not pastoring, had gotten his Ph.D in Business and ran a couple of businesses (which were not ELC) to provide an income for him and his family. One of these was doing Trusts for individuals. He personally did hundreds of different Trusts for people. He did one for me. Actually, he and his business partner Ed (from Las Vegas) did my Trust. Ed (last name withheld to protect the innocent) had done literally thousands of Trusts all over the United States. Dr. Wright once told me that the two of them had done Trusts for “seven different Billionaires.” I will not reveal what I paid Robin and Ed to do my Trust, but it was a LOT more than anyone reading this blog paid for their Trust, I assure you. I really would like this other attorney to let people know HOW MANY TRUSTS he has actually done. If anyone reading this blog would like to ask him, please do. He might get mad at you, but don’t worry, he will blast me (that’s his method so far) and not you. You he will apologize to because he is “humble” (at least he and his pastor say he is). Just make sure you are a “good fellow” and just searching for truth. How many times have I said to myself, “I wish Robin were here to answer this fellow”? But he is not here. So, I have to rely upon the Lord alone for my answers. I am sure He knows how to answer. He has given me several answers about my closing years in ELC. The words of the Apostle Paul echo one answer: “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” (2 Corinthians 12:15)

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I am an ELC Pastor. I am also the ELC Director and have been for the last 19 years since 1995. I am also the person who the most knowledgeable person in all of Trust Law says is “Confused,” “So Illiterate,” and “Already Defeated.” So, I started a blog, not necessarily to refute his teachings (I couldn’t care less about his teachings… really.), but to clear up some of the misconceptions about me and the ELC which I do represent.I have pastored the Bible Believers Historic Baptist Church here in Mesick, Michigan for 21 years. We average about 80-85 members, with a high of 162.